Elevadores Atlas
This article is about the defunct elevator company in São Paulo, Brazil. For the defunct American elevator company, see Atlas Elevator Co. (Northern California). Atlas Elevadores S.A. (also known as Elevadores Atlas and later Atlas Schindler) was an elevator company based in São Paulo, Brazil. They made residential, commercial and freight elevators as well as escalators. It was a subsidiary of the Villares Steel group. History The company was established on January 10, 1918 in the neighbourhood of Cambuci, São Paulo, and started as a small workshop for elevator installation and maintenance known as "Lowsby & Pirie", named after the founders who were two English engineers, AM Lowsby and Frederich James Pirie. In the early 1920s, Carlos Dumont Villares joined the company and was renamed to "Pirie, Villares & Cia", but he died in an accident in 1922. His brother, Luiz Dumont Villares, took over the workshop. In 1926, Luiz, after visiting Westinghouse's factory in Pennsylvania in his honeymoon, establishes a technology sharing agreement between the American and Brazilian companies. Around the 1940s, the "Atlas" brand was established. In 1954, Atlas brings the first escalator and automatic parking system to Brazil. The company remained independent until May 24, 1999 when Schindler acquires 63.64% of the shares of Atlas Lifts. Later, Schindler was established in Brazil as "Elevadores Atlas Schindler S.A." (or simply "Atlas Schindler"). They are still the national leader in vertical transportation and manufacturing. They were also responsible for developing the Schindler NeoLift and other elevator models sold by Schindler in South and Central Americas. Notable installations Brazil *All of the public and/or federally owned buidings in the city of Brasília (installed circa 1957-1962, most have been modernized by Atlas Schindler or other companies) *Shopping Pátio Paulista, São Paulo (1989, modernized by Schindler in 2016) *Shopping Pátio Higienópolis, São Paulo (1999, modernized in the mid 2000s) *Countless metro stations in São Paulo (various models, dates and equipment, most were modernized by other companies) *Congonhas Airport, São Paulo *FIESP Tower, São Paulo (Modernized with The PORT Technology) *MASP Museum, São Paulo *Edificio Italia, São Paulo (1965, modernized into Schindler 5500 in 2017, also includes the completely original Circolo Italiano Elevators) *Edificio Mirante do Vale, São Paulo *City of São Paulo Municipal Chamber, São Paulo (modernized with Schindler Miconic 10) Argentina *Galerias Pacifico Shopping Center, Buenos Aires *Alto Palermo Shopping Center, Buenos Aires Other countries *Centro Comercial Central, No. 60-62, Avenida do Infante Dom Henrique, Sé, Macau, China Trivia *Atlas's Interlagos - Santa Amaro elevator manufacturing factory was considered to be the largest factory of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. *Besides its home country, Atlas also exported their elevators to almost every Latin American countries, and even Portugal. Atlas also exported their products to Mozambique and Macau, where both are former Portuguese colonies. **Atlas elevators and escalators were also sold in Indonesia. These products were distributed by PT. Tanjungraya Eramas, a company that was part of PT. Tanjung Raya Elok (TRE) which distributed German made Lift Munich elevators in the 1980s and 1990s. *Luiz Dumont Villares, who assumed the company after his brother died, was nephew of Santos Dumont, inventor of the 14 Bis airplane. Gallery Logos, nameplates and badges Atlasbadge.jpg|Elevadores Atlas badge. 40satlascrank.png|Elevadores Atlas manual crank, circa 1920s. Atlas-Elevadores-Schindler.jpg|An early Atlas Schindler logo. Escalators 60satlascomb.jpg|Atlas escalator landing plate. 80satlascomb.jpg|Atlas escalator landing plate (different style) Atlassigmacomb.png|1990s Atlas "Sigma" escalator landing plate. Atlassigmadisplay.png|1990s Atlas "Sigma" escalator status indicator. Atlassigmanumber.jpg|1990s Atlas "Sigma" escalator emergency stop button and STOP/RUN keyswitch. 60satlasescalatorcomplete.jpg|Two 1960s Atlas escalators (Westinghouse model) in Goiânia, Brazil. 80satlasmodularescalator.png|1980s Atlas escalators Shopping Morumbi, São Paulo, Brazil (Credit goes to Instagram user "bbq._*") Advertisements and catalogs Elevadores Atlas Advert.jpg|Atlas elevator advertisement circa 1960s, with a picture of Edifício Wilton Paes de Almeida in São Paulo, Brazil (building collapsed in 2018) 60satlasescalatorad.png|An old Atlas escalator advertisement (year unknown). 1991 Elevadores Atlas advert Indonesia.jpg|Elevadores Atlas advertisement in Indonesia, from a July 1991 edition of "Majalah Konstruksi" magazine. 80satlascatalog.jpg|A screenshot of an old Atlas elevator cabin catalogue (circa 1970s-1980s) Others 1942atlassill.png|Vintage Atlas elevator door sills (manually operated scissor gates), circa 1942) (Credit to Instagram user "kikocorreia") 60satlascop.jpg|An old Atlas car station in Brazil. Atlasrescuesticker.jpg|Atlas warning sticker telling passengers not to leave the car and wait for rescue in case of entrapment. Green logo is very rare. Video See also *List of Elevadores Atlas elevator fixtures *Elevadores Sûr - a similar defunct Brazilian elevator company, acquired by Thyssen. External links *As Indústrias Villares, o Piso da Fábrica, a Cidade de São Paulo e Santo Amaro - a blog explaining about the history of Elevadores Atlas (Portuguese) *Official website of Atlas Schindler *History of Elevadores Atlas (Portuguese) Category:Elevator companies Category:Elevator companies that have been acquired Category:Defunct elevator companies